Real Estate Education, Professional Training, and Market Bias: A Behavioral Study in Hong Kong

Abstract

The real estate market has been known to suffer from inefficient information flow and uneven distribution of vital information. Carefully-crafted market/media reports can influence consumer sentiment and perception (i.e., the “framing effect”). Behavioral research in real estate has demonstrated that such framing effects can influence individuals' perceptions, which may consequently alter decisions made by housing consumers. In this paper, we find that framing effects influence university students and recent graduates with and without proper real estate academic knowledge. Academic real estate knowledge can be an important tool to fortify consumers against the bias created by the media. More practical knowledge and professional experience is needed in order for good judgments about future market performance to be made.